Ranters and Reviewers discussion

Share your oldest, weirdest reviews here! And then we can all laugh together. Idea credit to Annie.

okok so this was the review I was thinking about when I suggested this: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It's super ranty XD

Haha in that review you contradict yourself - I've got to say its a rollercoaster of emotions

ATheReader wrote: "Haha in that review you contradict yourself - I've got to say its a rollercoaster of emotions"

I was definitely not in a proper reviewing state of mind!

Omg that's from 2018, I didn't even read books back in 2018 lol

I didn't review books before March, despite having an account since 2017 lmao.

I got my account in May of 2020 and wrote some really bad reviews. Let me find an especially cringy one... I think I deleted and/or rewrote most of them. But there might still be a bad one somewhere

I FOUND THEM HOORAH.

Here are my crappy reviews. Ignore the dates on them (I edited them later after originally writing them, but I didn't change much, just spelling typos)

The Alchemyst: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Mystery of the 99 Steps:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I love the last one lol

Sofia wrote: "Omg that's from 2018, I didn't even read books back in 2018 lol"

It's only been two years, but somehow I feel so much older. IDK if it's foolish to think I've improved in reviewing, but it's true. I suppose I'll feel the same about my current reviews in a few years...

These reviews are all so ranty and amazing to read

A n n i e ⚔ | Mustachio Mozart wrote: "Sofia wrote: "Omg that's from 2018, I didn't even read books back in 2018 lol"

It's only been two years, but somehow I feel so much older. IDK if it's foolish to think I've improved in reviewing, ..."

Your reviews are AMAZING. No joke. Every time I see a new one on my updates page I drop everything.

(And I've definitely improved in the few months I've been on here. Even the way I read books is more critical now. Thank you, Goodreads, for saving my reading life.)

Sofia wrote: "A n n i e ⚔ | Mustachio Mozart wrote: "Sofia wrote: "Omg that's from 2018, I didn't even read books back in 2018 lol"

It's only been two years, but somehow I feel so much older. IDK if it's foolis..."

Aww, you flatter me! Same here though; your rant reviews give me life XD

And yeah I totally feel the same way. I remember when I had a 4.5 average rating...yeah....that was....

My average is 3.75 only because of old books I read a long time ago and rated highly because I didn't remember what I actually thought. My average of this year is something like 3.3, I believe.

My average is 4.0 and I feel so bad 😂

Lilly wrote: "My average is 4.0 and I feel so bad 😂"

There's nothing wrong with having a higher-than-average average rating. (Does that make sense?) What I meant was that my rating system got more refined! I've read your reviews and they're all super well written so it really shows that different people just have different approaches to star rating.

I don't like giving low ratings, so I have a 4.5+ average I think ;-;

Never mind, It's 4.43. But I definitely gave some books higher ratings than I should have.

LuminescentFirefly {~We don't even know why~} wrote: "I don't like giving low ratings, so I have a 4.5+ average I think ;-;"

Same for me on my school account!

Also guys I swear I wasn't looking down upon those with high average ratings, I was just trying to emphasize the fact that I didn't really know how to rate books when I first joined GR.

Honestly I have a really weird rating system where 5 stars is a favorite, 4 stars is good, and then three stars is also good but bad??? Idk 😂. 2 stars is bad and I refuse to rate books 1 star. I tend to see a lot of people use a similar rating system (to eachother, not to me)

Same here, Annie.

Omg I could never, Lilly. I rate books one star all the time.

Three stars is reserved for books that I thought were decent, but I didn't develop any emotional connection to. Or if they were boring.

A n n i e ⚔ | Mustachio Mozart wrote: "Also guys I swear I wasn't looking down upon those with high average ratings, I was just trying to emphasize the fact that I didn't really know how to rate books when I first joined GR."

I honestly have always hated that I always have around a 4.0 rating, so you're fine 😂

Lilly wrote: "Honestly I have a really weird rating system where 5 stars is a favorite, 4 stars is good, and then three stars is also good but bad??? Idk 😂. 2 stars is bad and I refuse to rate books 1 star. I te..."

For me, 5 stars is a book with great characterization/worldbuilding/writing, 4 stars is a book with great plotting and pacing, 3 stars is a book with average elements, 2 stars is a book that is lacking a certain je ne sais quoi, and 1 star is a problematic story. A lot of my favorites are 4 stars and a lot of my least favorites are 3 stars because of that system.

Sofia wrote: "Three stars is reserved for books that I thought were decent, but I didn't develop any emotional connection to. Or if they were boring."

Yeah, I have strong feelings towards four-star and two-star books but three-star books....mehhhhh

Yeah, same. Honestly, you're a much more organized reviewer than I am.

Characters are most important to me, then writing, then plot, then worldbuilding.

My average rating dropped from a 3.9 to a 3.75 in the past month. That's concerning.

Most books I've read recently are either 4 stars or 2 stars, because I either like them or don't like them. Three stars for meh is more rare, because I usually have strong feelings about books.

My average rating is 3.73- I'm not afraid to rank a book down and most of the books I read I find myself giving 3 stars. But I don't usually give 1 star, it feels too harsh.

Now I feel mean lol

Now, I went through some of my 5-star ratings and changed my mind, so my average is now 4.3. Believe it or not, Sofia was the one who taught me it's okay to be a bit more honest with ratings XD

Nah go for the one-star- I'm trying to convince myself to rate more accurately (lower) I feel like I'm trying to be nice to the author, but then again they made me suffer through the story soooo

Aw, I'm honored :)
Another thing I've been coming to terms with is the DNF zone and the fact that's it's okay to not finish a book and still rate it.

Oh wow. My average rating is at a 3.51. And even your "worst" reviews are better than my regular ones, lol.

omg totally not true.

human wrote: "Oh wow. My average rating is at a 3.51. And even your "worst" reviews are better than my regular ones, lol."

Hey, my average rating is pretty close to that!

Sofia wrote: "Aw, I'm honored :)
Another thing I've been coming to terms with is the DNF zone and the fact that's it's okay to not finish a book and still rate it."

I don't know why but I feel so unsatisfied when I DNF something. It always lingers in the back of my head.

Also not related but we can now vote in the Choice Awards!

(and now I'm mad that most of the YA books are the ones that received the most HYPE rather than the actual best ones)

I've never voted before. This should be interesting.

i just voted for my current read, Cemetery Boys.

I voted for The Vanishing Half and Such a Fun Age. I surprisingly haven't read any of the fantasy nominees.

ATheReader wrote: "Nah go for the one-star- I'm trying to convince myself to rate more accurately (lower) I feel like I'm trying to be nice to the author, but then again they made me suffer through the story soooo"

Hahahah same my avg. rating 4.27 and some of those books did NOT deserve 5 stars.

For YA, I voted for A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and for MG, i voted for The Tower of Nero. Probably the most popular books XD

Oh wow. You liked Ballad?

I had to DNF Ballad

I heard it was horrible and boring

I guess it depended on your expectations. I thought it was pretty good, just slow, like Mockingjay, but not as boring.